Kain Colter: Man meets moment

While harboring NFL aspirations, former NU QB works to significantly alter relationship of college football and its players

February 15, 2014|By Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune reporter

Left, United Steelworkers International president Leo Gerard speaks to media as Kain Colter, a star quarterback and receiver who completed his college football career in December, listens to the announcement that several Northwestern football players wish to join a labor union, during a press conference at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. For the first time in the history of college sports, athletes are asking to be represented by a labor union. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

Kain Colter's life has changed little since he became the face of a movement to unionize college football.

His morning starts at 6 a.m. when trainers at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., rouse him for a day of activities such as film study, rehab on his surgically repaired right ankle, catching passes, eye strengthening, media training and studying for the Wonderlic, a 50-question, 12-minute intelligence test he will take this week at the NFL scouting combine.

Last year's top rookie quarterbacks averaged a 26.7. Colter, who is taking two classes now and will graduate in March from Northwestern with a degree in psychology, said he's aiming for "37-40ish."

"You don't want to look too smart," he said with a chuckle during a 20-minute telephone interview with the Tribune. "Might hurt you."

The reality for Colter, though, is that whatever he ultimately accomplishes in a helmet will be trumped by what he did in a suit and tie on Jan. 28.

That's when he took the podium in a Chicago hotel meeting room and called the NCAA a "dictatorship," speaking out over what he views as injustices in the way college athletes are treated.

Two days earlier he convinced former teammates to sign union cards, setting the stage for a lengthy battle that ultimately pits Northwestern against Northwestern — Colter and the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA) versus the Northwestern lawyers arguing that football players are not employees.

After the news broke, coach Pat Fitzgerald applied a positive spin, tweeting: "Kain and our student-athletes have followed their beliefs with great passion and courage. I'm incredibly proud of our young men! GO CATS!"

Asked what he believes Fitzgerald is feeling, Colter said: "I think he has a lot of emotions. He's proud of the whole team, but at the same time nobody wants a system to be shaken up if they are being treated very well. He has to answer to people, and I'm sure he's getting asked a bunch about it."

Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips, whose name is on the petition CAPA founder Ramogi Huma filed with the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), released a mainly positive statement, saying: "We love and are proud of our students. … We agree they should have a prominent voice."

But Phillips, who has worked to build a football program with a 97 percent graduation rate, said that "collective bargaining is not the appropriate method to address these concerns."

And sources with knowledge of his thinking said Phillips, the first Northwestern athletic director to become president of the prestigious National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, is dismayed by Colter's attempts to unionize.

Colter understands, saying: "At end of the day we are family, and sometimes families view things differently."

That family will square off Tuesday at an NLRB hearing during which Colter will testify as CAPA's "star witness," according to Huma, chronicling the daily demands of being a college football player. A handful of Northwestern players who signed union cards will testify, but it's yet to be determined whether Phillips will be called to testify.

Northwestern officials have declined to take questions, deferring to the school's official statements.

Colter, who has turned away nearly all media requests, spoke in depth to the Tribune.

'The rest is history'

Last summer while interning at Goldman Sachs in private wealth management, Colter took the Northwestern class "Contemporary Issues in the Modern Workplace."

Colter recalled that during a discussion about unions, instructor Nick Dorzweiler "jokingly said: 'I can't believe college athletes don't have a union with as much money as you guys bring in.' It kind of clicked. I thought: Why don't we?"

In doing research, Colter arrived at the website of the National College Players Association, which paved the way for CAPA. Colter filled in a comment box, mentioning his interest in exploring players' rights. He included his cell number and received a call from Huma.

"The rest," Colter said, "is history."

As Huma recalled it: "Kain wrote he was interested in this fight and Northwestern could play a big role. I called him and within the first few sentences he said: 'I believe college athletes need a players' association just like the pros have, otherwise we will never have the rights we need.' "

Huma already had come to the same conclusion. As far back as 1995, as a linebacker at UCLA, Huma was dismayed to learn that UCLA's health insurance did not cover voluntary practices and to see teammate Donnie Edwards get suspended for accepting groceries.

Colter's light first flickered as a kid. His father, Spencer, who played safety on Colorado's 1990 national championship team, would talk about Kain's uncle, Cleveland (Cadillac) Colter.